Super Speedy
by FosterStinson
Summary: Barry rushes to Oliver's apartment to tell him that he saved the world, but when he arrives he instead finds Thea, and a brand new chapter of the story that is their lives begins.


All Barry could think about was the look on Oliver's face when he told him that he saved the world from a blackhole. Sure, going to Oliver's apartment to brag wasn't the first thing to popped into his head, but as soon as it got there he wouldn't let it go. Caitlin and Ronnie were on their honeymoon, Iris had been grieving Eddie, and Cisco locked himself in his lab and refused to tell anyone what he was doing. So with nothing else to do, Barry decided to take the long awaited run to Starling.

He got from his house to Oliver's apartment in about five seconds, and he opened the door, as it had been left unlocked, and ran in.

"Oliver! Oliver you are never going to believe-" he was cut off by the sound of an arrow whizzing through the air.

 _Fool me once…_ thought Barry as time slowed down around him. He turned around and grabbed the arrow as time went back to normal.

"Did you really think that-" his train of thought crashed when he saw a young girl who was definitely not Oliver holding a bow and another arrow already knocked in. "You're not Oliver."

"Wow, you've got eyes, congratulations. Who the hell are you?" she asked.

"I'm, I'm Barry. Barry Allen. I'm friends with Oliver, I'm sorry, is this not his apartment?"

"It was. Then he left."

"Wait, left? Left for where?"

"Why does it matter to you?"

Barry set the arrow down on the table. "I told you who I am, now how about you return the favor."

Thea's eyes narrowed. She didn't trust this guy, but she did seem to remember the name Barry Allen being passed around a couple of times. She trusted her instincts and lowered the bow.

"I'm Thea. Oliver's sister."

"Oh. Well, it's… nice to meet you. So I'm guessing by the whole bow and arrow thing that you know-"

"That Oliver's the Arrow? Yeah. I know. Question is, how do you know? I have no idea who you are."

"Oh, well, I worked with Oliver about two years ago on a case about a guy with super strength. Then I kinda got struck by lightning."

"Oh, holy shit." Said Thea, her eyes widening.

"Yeah I was in a coma for nine months, and when I woke up, well…" he picked up the arrow from the table and started twirling it between his fingers at super speed.

"Whoa." Was all Thea could manage to say.

"Yeah." He said, stopping the arrow. "Freaked me out too."

"You're the guy from Central City, what is it, the Flash?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, I am."

"That is so badass."

"Uh, thanks. Do you mind if I…?" asked Barry, motioning towards the couch.

"Yeah, go for it. Want a drink?"

"Even if I did, it wouldn't do anything." He said sitting down. "My powers make it so that I can't get drunk."

"Wow that sounds incredibly boring." She said, walking over to the bar.

"You don't know the half of it. If you don't mind my asking, how old are you?" he asked suspiciously.

"Twenty. What are you gonna do about it?" she said somewhat aggressively, somewhat playfully. She didn't know why, but she felt comfortable around Barry.

"Hey don't worry, I'm not a cop." He said, putting his hands in the air. Then he slowly lowered them as he realized, "Well, actually I kind of am… but that's not the point. You, do whatever you want."

Thea chuckled as she finished her drink and went to sit across from Barry.

"So, I don't believe you ever answered my question… where did Oliver go?" asked Barry.

"Oh, yeah. Well about a week ago all of us banded together and took down Ra's al Ghul, he's like the leader of some elite society of assassins, and after he was dead, Oliver hung up the hood. He said Starling had enough heroes and, in my opinion, just used it as an excuse to drive off into the sunset with Felicity, which is exactly what he did."

"Oh. He and Felicity finally…?"

"Yeah, finally."

"Where'd they go?"

"Uh, Coast City I think."

"Oh, I once knew a guy from Coast City. Haven't heard from him in a long time though."

"Fascinating." Said Thea playfully.

"But wow, I still can't believe Oliver just gave it up like that. I mean, I know there's Ray, but what other heroes are there in Starling?"

"Well, there's the Black Canary, your S.T.A.R. Labs buddy, Cisco, I think, actually made her a necklace that makes her screams super loud, I guess that's her trademark."

"Oh yeah, he told me about that. I haven't told him this, but I found the picture he took with her, that's the biggest freaking smile I've ever seen on his face." Said Barry, laughing.

"Yeah, well there's also Diggle, he just runs around in street clothes with a gun, not very subtle that one. And last but certainly not least, there's me." She said, proudly motioning towards herself.

"You? What do you do?"

"Oh, I'm the new archer in town. I go by Speedy, but personally I think Red Arrow sounds better."

"No, stick with Speedy. It sounds more original, plus I'm a little biased." Said Barry grinning, which made Thea chuckle.

"So, what did you race over here to tell Oliver about?"

"Oh, holy crap, I totally forgot! I just wanted to tell him that I saved the world from a blackhole, no big deal." He said casually, readjusting his seating position so that his legs were crossed and his arm was draped across the couch.

"No shit. You can't just say that and not give me a little background info."

Barry laughed as he resituated to lean more towards Thea. "Okay, well, it's a long story, so I'm gonna start from the beginning…"

And as Barry went into detail about his life story, starting with Thawne killing his mother to growing up with Iris, to "Harrison Wells", to just about everything, Thea listened intently to every detail. Barry never wavered, he never sugarcoated anything. He didn't know why, but he just felt safe, he felt normal talking to Thea about this stuff.

As he finished, he said "If there's one thing I regret about the whole thing, it's that Eddie had to die. I mean, sure he could be kind of a dick sometimes, but he was my friend. I respected him, even kinda liked him sometimes."

"But he was with Iris." Said Thea, understandingly.

"Yeah. He was her hero. The last thing I want to do is take that away from him. So I've been trying, harder than ever, to just get over Iris. I'm really starting to think that Wells… that Thawne was wrong about the future. Maybe she's not destined to be Iris West-Allen." He said forcing a smile.

"I think you're right. Everything you told me about her, it just strikes me as really unhealthy. And trust me, I know about unhealthy. She was never right for you."

"You think so?"

"I do."

"Huh. So, I told you my life's story, now let's hear how you know about unhealthy." He said, meeting her eyes with eyes, both of them smiling.

"Oh you are in for a treat, Allen."

Then, Thea told him everything about her. What she felt after she lost Oliver the first time, her drug problem, Roy, Malcolm, everything. All their cards were on the table, both of them emotionally stripped bare. There were no barriers between them whatsoever. There was heat, and an unspoken feeling shared between the two of them, but instead of acting on it they just kept talking. As seconds turned into minutes, minutes turned into hours, and they found themselves talking about the most embarrassing parts of High School at four in the morning.

"Okay, but no, my High School years were the worst." Said Barry. "Not even because I was bullied, because I was, but because I was _super_ into show choir. For a while, I even thought that I might've been gay!"

"No!" said Thea in disbelief, laughing. She had stopped drinking a while ago. She didn't really feel the need to be drunk to have fun with Barry.

"Yeah! There was this kid, Blaine, it was bad. It was so bad. But then I swapped show choir for science, and I found myself in the police department."

"No offense, but I hate cops."

"Hey, none taken. Most of them can be assholes."

"Yeah, honestly Laurel's dad is the worst. He hates Oliver, he hates everyone who calls themselves a hero. He's always trying to 'steer me in the right direction', and don't even get me started on how fucked up his relationship with Laurel is." Just as she said that, her phone started ringing. "It's Laurel. I should take this."

"Hey Laurel, what's up?"

" _Thea, it's Ray. There's been an explosion at Palmer Technologies. Diggle and I are both here, but we don't know if he's still alive, or if it was an attack. Just get down here as soon as possible."_

Thea hung up and looked at Barry.

"I have to-"

"I know, I heard. Suit up, Speedy."

Thea grinned before running to her room to put on her costume. As soon as she passed him Barry ran to S.T.A.R. Labs and put his suit on before returning to the loft in eight seconds flat. About a minute later Thea came out of her room in full costume, surprised to find Barry already suited up.

"Whoa."

"Palmer Technologies, right?"

"Um, yeah, but-"

She was interrupted by Barry picking her up and rushing them off to meet Laurel and Diggle. This was the beginning of something much bigger than either of them could have ever predicted back when Barry caught that arrow.


End file.
